Nope it wasn’t a visit from outer space (unless you consider Tennessee outer space) It was the UPS guy and my new portable ring flash!! Yup the company is called Alien bees and they make cheap studio gear. I got the ABR800 Ring Flash that has
been on backorder for a month, and a moon unit (The thing on my head:) to soften studio work even more.
Ring Flashes are wicked awesome for fashion and head shot photos because you get nice even shadowless lighting that tends to be über flattering and pretty!! You can use them alone as the only light source, or combine them with other hair and key flashes for more definition. The thing is 800Ws (Ws = watt seconds) as well which at full power blasts my 500Ws out of the water! We are talking the difference of two to four stops (f16 to f45) as near as I can tell from simple screwing around with my light meter! Light does appear to fall off quickly though as you can see in the photo with the moon unit on my head (I know i am a goof) but i imagine that with an umbrella it wouldn’t be so drastic. So that brings our studio contingent to about 2300Ws. I could light a lot of large things with that
See über soft and flattering!!! The ABR800 is sorta like two flashes in one as well for you can light stand mount it and attach an umberlla to it just like any other flash head.
I also got the portable power pack with it. The Vagabond Portable Power System consists of a power inverter, a sealed Lead acid battery, and a bag.
The vagabond is awesome because i have portable power for whatever I want when ever i want for whatever i want, it isn’t just for the flash. That gets a big Ol b00Ya!!! from me.
Anyway I am super stoked that this came cause I have a few shoots lined up over the next few days and I am super excited to try it out!!! (on some one other then me of course)